Loison, for the sake of intimidating the country, and thereby preventing the danger of such resistance as he had experienced in Tras os Montes, had sent before him a report that he had been reinforced by 16,000 men from the army of Marshal Bessieres; and this news was officially transmitted to Junot by the Corregedor of Abrantes. At first the French received the tidings with entire belief, and with a joy proportionate to the danger from which they now thought themselves delivered. A comparison of dates and distances occasioned some uncomfortable doubts, and the next day advices came that Loison had arrived at Abrantes with no other force than his own. But even this was of no inconsiderable importance: it relieved them from their anxiety concerning him, it brought the whole of their disposable force within reach and within command, for Kellermann had now arrived with the troops from Alem-Tejo; and Junot determined upon striking a great blow before the English should appear. Kellermann had been sent to Alcobaça, where the troops under General Thomières, who covered Peniche, and those of Margaron (who had received the submission of the people of Thomar, and exacted from them ♦NEVES, IV. 64.♦ 20,000 cruzados) were to be under his orders. Loison was now instructed to form a junction with them and take the command; crush the insurgents in that part of the country, march against Coimbra, subdue and chastise that city, thus quenching one great furnace of the insurrection, ♦THIEBAULT, 146.♦ and return to Lisbon. Before he reached Alcobaça part of these instructions had been fulfilled by Thomières.
♦NAZARETH SACKED AND BURNT BY THE FRENCH.♦
That General had advanced with a few hundred men to Obidos, with the intention of relieving the fort at Nazareth; but a reconnoitring party which he sent forward to Barquinha was driven back, four of his scouts were made prisoners and sent on board an English vessel, and a report that a considerable body of English had landed there to assist the insurgents deterred him from proceeding in time. The Portugueze themselves raised this report; in reality they had applied for aid to the English, who, some time before, had taken possession of the Berlengs; a few pieces of cannon were given them, but the garrison was so scanty that no men could be spared; and the short respite which they obtained by deceiving the enemy would have been better employed in providing for escape, than for a feeble and disorderly resistance. Nine days after their triumph Thomières proceeded against them ♦JULY 14.♦ with 3000 men, in the belief that some English had joined them. One column, under cover of the darkness, got under the ill-served guns of the insurgents before they were perceived; the Portugueze fired in haste without aim and without effect, and then took to flight. A few drunken fellows, who had undertaken to serve the guns, remained by them, with a woman and a few old men, and these were put to death. The town of Nazareth was sacked, and set on fire. The jewels which they took from the church of N. Senhora de Nazareth were estimated at more than £20,000; for of the innumerable and many-named idols of Our Lady in Portugal, this was the most celebrated. It is the very image which, according to the legend, St. Jerome sent from Bethlehem to St. Augustine, and St. Augustine to his monks at the Caulian monastery, from whence, at the destruction of the Goths, it was brought by King Roderick and Romano to this spot. It is said, that during the last century the idol has sometimes been visited by not less than 20,000 devotees on the day of its festival. The enemy then descending to the beach, burnt the lower town, consisting of some 300 houses, of which only four escaped the flames; they burnt also the nets and vessels, upon which the inhabitants, ♦NEVES, IV. 84–87.♦ being fishermen, depended for their subsistence: they then plundered Pederneira, and set it on fire, and returned with their booty to Alcobaça[19].